Willem Droochscheerder (Willem van Thye), an Anabaptist martyr, burned at the stake at Antwerp, Belgium, on 30 January 1557. The sentence was exe­cuted in a particularly cruel way, the victim being burned alive without having been strangled before as was usual. Van Braght's Martyrs' Mirror does not mention the exact date of execution. Willem, who was a native of Nere (Neeritter) near Roermond in the present Dutch province of Limburg, wrote a letter from prison to his brother N. and his sister N. In this letter he thankfully writes that prison and torture did not vanquish his faith: "They (the persecutors) cannot harm a hair without the will of our Father; the more we are oppressed, the more we are comforted." In prison he also wrote the song "Christen broeders, weest nu al verblijt" (Christian brethren, now all rejoice). Both the let­ter and the hymn are found in Offer des Heeren, the letter also in the Martyrs' Mirror. Willem is commemorated in the hymn "Aenhoort God, hemelsche Vader," No. 16 of the Lietboecxken.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 568 f.